The Amazing Race – Season 21 Episode 8 – We Was Robbed – Recap

Hey everyone! I put up a brief outline of The Amazing Race, Season 21 Episode 8, a couple days ago, but here’s my full recap if you want to get all the deets.

Finishing up Leg 7

Previously on the Amazing Race, Josh & Brent and Abbie & Ryan missed their flight to Moscow, so they’re wayyy behind the four others. Trey and Lexi won the leg. James and Abba lost a passport, so they’re out of the race unless they find it.

At the Trud Sports Complex, Josh and Brent are still epically failing at their synchronized swimming task. They get one last shot to perform their task because the pool is about to close, but they blew it. Instead, they get a four-hour penalty.

They head on to the Roadblock at the Trees of Locks. Tree of Life? Locks for Love? Oh, it’s called the Trees of Love. Okay. Josh masters the task, but Abbie struggles and decides to sit down instead. Josh helps Abbie with her task. Aww.

Abbie and Ryan and Josh and Brent finally make it to the finish mat, and it’s nightfall already. They’re shocked to hear that another team hasn’t finished yet, and they finish in fourth and fifth, respectively. Josh and Brent still have a four-hour penalty, though.

James and Abba went to the U.S. Embassy to try to get another passport made. Eventually, they head back to the pit stop, and they’re officially the last team to arrive. However, this is a non-elimination leg so they’re still in the race! They have a Speed Bump at the next leg, and they still absolutely must find the passport.

Here’s the final order of finish for Leg 7, which started last episode:

Trey and Lexi

Jaymes and James

Natalie and Nadiya

Abbie and Ryan

Josh and Brent (four-hour penalty)

James and Abba (passport-less)

Leg 8

Trey and Lexi are the first team to depart. The teams stay in Moscow in this leg. They go to Study Building #6 at the Moscow Agricultural Academy, where they will find the Large Chemistry Auditorium No. 1. The taxi driver drops them off at some kind of underground tunnel with broken beer bottles instead.

Jaymes and James depart in second. Jaymes and James get to the academy in first, except the place hasn’t opened yet. There is, however, a sign that Jaymes says looks like it says “Beyonce 8:00.” “We think that says Opens at 8,” he surmises.

Trey and Lexi ditch their first driver and find another driver who is dressed in a classy blazer and is smoking a cigarette. He finally takes them to the right place after several attempts.

Roadblock: Who’s in the Zone?

Teams will be shown Russia’s nine different time zones and then must calculate the time of day in five Russian cities. They’re given the time in Moscow, and then a map with time zones would flash up, and then a map with the names of several cities flashes up.

Jaymes and Lexi work together. Study buddies!

Jaymes and Lexi hard at work. What great students.

After 11 tries, they realize that they’ve been calculating these times incorrectly all this time. When it says Moscow +4, and another city has +6, that city would have two hours added to its time, not six. Tricky!

Jaymes explains his “Aha!” moment. Meanwhile, James is probably thinking, “What an idiot…”

Also, the teacher/clue-giver is awesome. He says “PENCILS DOWN” which such enthusiasm. “I’m really sorry…” he starts saying with a frown. “But you WIN!” He hands them their next clue.

Natalie and Nadiya leave in third. It’s their last day to use the Express Pass.

An exchange between the twins and their taxi driver goes something like this:

Twins: He’s bringing us to McDonald’s!

Driver: No McDonald’s?

Twins: No McDonald’s! *starts to explain where to go*

Driver: I know where it is! I taxi thirty-seven years!

Everyone: *cheers*

Twins: No McDonald’s. They’re too fat.

Everyone: *cracks up*

The twins get to the school. “At this roadblock, both of us are like HELL NO,” they say, and they use their Express Pass immediately.

Detour: Movers or Shakers

Movers: Learn and perform a Russian soldier dance. This task looks awesome. They choose a soldier and then are taught a “punishing” dance routine.

Shakers: Identify seven historic Russian leaders at a cocktail party. This also looks really fun! Some of the leaders include Catherine the Great, Josef Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin. When they identify the right number of look-alikes, “Alexander Pushkin” hands over their next clue.

Trey and Lexi, the Chippendales, and the twins all choose the dance task. Trey and Lexi couldn’t find a taxi, so the Chippendales stopped and helped them find a cab. Aww.

They go to the Petrovsky room at a hotel and dress up in soldier costumes.

Trey strips down into his Russian soldier costume as Lexi wolf-whistles at him.

James sprained his ankle in Shanghai, but they now have to do a Russian dance, which is really physical. It’s hurting him a lot! He’s sweating profusely. Why would they even choose this task knowing that it requires dancing?

TA-DA! The Chippendales break out the jazz hands.

James perseveres, and the Chips get cleared on their second try. The dance is way easier than the synchronized swim task last leg. Trey and Lexi follow soon after.

Nadiya’s pants rip in two different spots as she’s squatting to perform a dance move! “MY ASS IS OUT! NATTY MY ASS!” she yells. (Sorry, you were probably hoping one of the Chippendales was the one who had a wardrobe malfunction, right? Teehee.) The twins finish the task on their first try. On the way out, they drive by a random guy wearing a cape. “He’s drunk! Too much vodka!” they say.

Yes, she did. Twice.

Pit Stop: Sokolniki Park

They go to Sokolniki Park, a fairground, their next pitstop.

Jaymes and James still try calling Trey and Lexi another cab, but they run off.

It’s a footrace to the finish! The Chips get there in first. It’s their best finish yet. They won a trip to Costa Rica. Trey and Lexi finish in second, and the twins come later.

The Stragglers

Finally, Abbie and Ryan depart in fourth.

Ryan attempts the Roadblock and thinks he nailed the task on his first try. He’s astonished when he doesn’t get it correct… over and over again. He keeps making the same mistake that Jaymes and Lexi made before. “The file is corrupt!” he yells. Ryan the puzzle lover can’t figure it out.

“I was a really bad student in school, but I test really high in IQ,” he says. Finally, he realizes what he did wrong. “UGHHHH I’M SO STUPID!!! I’M SO STUPID!!!” he keeps yelling. Finally on Test #25, he gets it right.

Abbie and Ryan go dancing and get the detour done on their first try. They finish in fourth.

Josh and Brent start the leg off in fifth. Brent said he was always a very good student who sat in the front row and was the teacher’s pet. At the Roadblock, Brent figures out the trick on the very first try! Way to go.

James and Abba depart last, and they first use a cell phone to call the police and report a stolen passport. Were they not allowed to call before? They go to the police station to report the stolen passport, and all they can do is wait.

Yay, Josh and Brent go with the Shakers Detour task! Reminds me of that “World Leaders and Cheerleaders” party in college. Since they know they’re ahead of James and Abba, they decide to take the time to enjoy the experience. That’s something that oftentimes comes of second importance to the racers, who are largely focused on zooming through the cities to get their next clue. So, it’s great to see them enjoying themselves and taking full advantage of the cultural experience. They easily identify the leaders on their first try and socialize with the leaders.

Vladimir Lenin gives Josh some words of wisdom. I thought Leninism was all about revolutionizing the working class, but this is cool too.

Brent defends democracy by sword-fighting with Peter the Great.

They make a toast to Russia. “Lively for a dead crowd!” Brent exclaims. If all six teams had started at the same time, they probably would have finished the leg in first. They zoomed through their challenges. Instead, they were in fifth.

James and Abba never found the passport, so they’re stranded in Russia… FOREVER! Actually, though, they were probably stuck in Russia for at least several days after getting eliminated because they can’t leave the country without the passport.

Here’s the final order of finish:

Jaymes and James

Trey and Lexi

Natalie and Nadiya

Abbie and Ryan

Josh and Brent

James and Abba (ELIMINATED)

Next week, Abbie and Ryan miss their flight again, and the Chippendales consider U-turning a team. Uh-oh!

Too bad James and Abba were eliminated because of a lost passport. They were doing so well! What did you all think of this week’s episode?